Bali to host UN meeting on stamping out corruption

16 January 2008

Over 1,000 people from more than 100 nations – including Government officials, business leaders, law enforcement personnel, journalists, entertainers and civil society representatives – will convene in Bali, Indonesia, later this month for a United Nations conference on curbing corruption.

The five-day meeting of the Parties to the UN Convention against Corruption will be opened on 28 January by the country’s President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

The Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which is the custodian of the Convention, noted that “since corruption hurts us all, we have a shared responsibility to stop it.”

Antonio Maria Costa added that the Bali meeting “provides a chance to replace a culture of corruption with an environment of integrity.”

The first and only legally binding anti-corruption treaty, the Convention came into force on 14 December 2005, and thus far has been signed by 140 States and ratified by 107.

Among other things, it requires States to prevent corruption, make it a criminal offence, cooperate in stamping it out and return stolen assets.

A key item on the meeting’s agenda will be to create a means to review the treaty’s implementation.

“The UN anti-corruption Convention provides benchmarks to plug holes in domestic legislation and strengthen national capacity to fight corruption,” Mr. Costa said. “An effective review mechanism will ensure that this powerful piece of international law lives up to its potential.”

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The head of the United Nations anti-crime agency today praised the efforts of Nigeria to bring about what he called a “climate change” in attitudes and actions about corruption in a country that has long suffered from the ruinous effects of the practice.